世論 What Japan Thinks

Here’s one from goo Ranking quite high up on the silliness scale, things that are sorer than they look.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’m sure all the guys in the audience will be wincing at number five – perhaps its high ranking is from women not empathising with us in our moment of suffering. Talking about that region, other more obvious (to us guys at least) pains have perhaps been removed for the sake of decency.

For me personally, I sometimes get a trapped muscle in my neck that hurts something awful!
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This latest survey from goo Ranking looks at what people hated as a child, but now love.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

As usual, I’m left scratching my head at an answer, this time “long holidays”!

Note that since goo Ranking overhauled their results pages, they’ve started presenting non-rounded sets of results, this time 26, so please don’t suspect me of missing out some answers!
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As you will see once you read the results of this survey from goo Ranking into when guys couldn’t help thinking they were in with a chance, I had a lot of fun translating it.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’m sure there’s a more hip slang I could use in the headline, but you’ll just have to stick with the one above. I’m pretty much immune to these sorts of things, even before I got married! I get number 18 in shops quite a bit, when they cup one hand underneath mine to catch loose change, but I’ve never thought of it as an expression of desire!

Just in case you are wondering what giblets are doing in the last answer, giblets is the translation of the popular grilled beef restaurant dish ホルモン, or hormone, which I wonder if it has similar overtones to that of the English word from which the Japanese derives.
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The twin topics of this recent pair of surveys from goo Ranking was what women think they cannot get men to understand and what men find difficult to understand about women.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Listening (or at least pretending to do so!) to women and not being silent, even if it is just a grunt in reply, is one thing that I cannot really get my head around. When I’m annoyed, I just talk to myself just to get it all out, so I don’t understand why they can’t just do the same!

I used to wonder about why my wife used so much toilet paper, but I recently saw a program that suggested both male and female Japanese roll up about five to ten metres of the stuff whereas I was taught to use just five to eight sheets, fold the top over once or twice, and off you go. I wonder how washlet toilets and the resultant wet bum results in excessive toilet paper usage? We (well, she…) go through almost a roll per day!
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Today’s sideways look at Japanese society is courtesy of goo Ranking as usual, where they investigated what, outside of directly work-related issues, new starts in the office would ask their seniors, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

The use of “senior” is one of these difficult words to translate from Japanese. The usual translation of 先輩, sempai, is just “senior”, but in this one small word there are elements of respect and a big brother-little brother relationship. “Mentor” would be too formal and narrow a role, and it’s a much more long-term relationship than “the guy who showed me around when I started.”
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The subject matter for this ranking survey from goo Ranking suggests there may be either poignant romantic thoughts or scary stalker-like activities; you’ll probably not be disappointed to hear that both extremes feature in this survey on actions taken when recalling lingering affections for an ex, for both men recalling women and women recalling men.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 2nd of February 2009 1,076 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.1% of the sample were male, 7.2% in their teens, 15.8% in their twenties, 29.4% in their thirties, 25.2% in their forties, 11.1% in their fifties, and 11.3% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

Such is the progress of techology that answer two for both male and female was re-reading email rather than pouring over old love letters! Pretending to be drunk and phoning her up is always a good tactic, though!
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Two silly surveys today, and this one too leaves me scratching my head and wondering if it really is interesting or not… From goo Ranking, it’s what people find peculiar about Tokyo.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

One surprise here is that “lots of foreigners” does not appear in the answer!
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Here’s one of these silly surveys, from goo Ranking of course, that is either interesting or incomprehensible, or both… The subject was in what situations were people just putting on an act, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’m useless at acting, so I’ve got into trouble for at least the first three for men, and as for pretending to be drunk, it’s far easier to just be drunk.

Does anyone understand what saying one’s full up on a first date really means? I could understand for men if it was just to get out of having to order and pay for another course, but it’s higher ranked for women.
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I’m more of an SD card person myself, so I’ve never actually owned a USB thumb device, but this recent survey repotred on by japan.internet.com and conducted by goo Research into said USB memory found that I am very much in the minority in Japan.

Demographics

Between the 25th of February and the 3rd of March 2009 1,075 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.0% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, 15.8% in their fifties, and 11.9% aged sixty or older.

Talking of USB memory, if you have more than you can plug into your PC at one time, Strapya has a R2D2 and Darth Vader USB hub!

I read last month about an interesting (for “interesting” read “useless”) USB memory-centred security system for PCs from NTT; they encrypt the hard drive, then select random parts of the encrypted files to write out to USB memory, the theory being that the PC without the USB memory or vice versa is useless. However, I cannot actually think of valid threats that this defends against, unless the memory dongle has a wired or wireless tether, and if there’s a tether you don’t need the writing to USB memory, and all it does is introduce another point of failure, especially as a detached USB drive is easy to lose.

I can guess that it’s patented, as sadly that seems the major driver behind many developments at my employer at least.
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Two sillynesses for the price of one today, with the second dose also from goo Ranking, looking at the moment one realises that two people at the office were an item, for both men and women.

Demographics

Between the 22nd and 26th of January 2009 1,071 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private online questionnaire. 51.8% of the sample were male, 6.9% in their teens, 14.3% in their twenties, 28.9% in their thirties, 27.8% in their forties, 11.3% in their fifties, and 10.8% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample.

I’ve not been in this situation in Japan, but it did happen once at a previous employer when I realised that one person was giving the other a lift home every night, yet they both lived in opposite directions. I actually ended up following their car one night.

Indeed, considering how closely everyone works and socialises, people keep their love life very close to their chests; it is not uncommon for someone in the office to suddenly announce being not just engaged, but actually married.

Photo from jasoneppink on flickr.
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